Free app a guide down diagnostic imaging pathways

The Western Australian Department of Health has released a free app based on the Diagnostic Imaging Pathways (DIP) decision support resource aimed at referring doctors and medical students.

Endorsed by the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists, the DIP is a suite of pathways designed to guide the choice of the most appropriate diagnostic imaging examinations in the correct sequence. They aim to prevent examinations that are not needed and ensure that appropriate examinations are provided.

The new DIP app has over 160 pathways covering all of the major organ systems and many clinical conditions that are seen in general and specialist clinical practice.

While the DIP website has a section for consumers, the app has been specifically designed for current and future referrers to diagnostic imaging services as well as radiologists, nuclear medicine physicians, imaging technologists, nurses, students and clinical educators.

It includes information on the most cost-effective diagnostic imaging strategies in a large number of clinical scenarios, the risks of ionising radiation and the different modalities and examinations used in diagnostic imaging.

As some of the original DIP flowchart diagrams are quite large, they are represented in the app as a sequence of screens. An overview button can be pressed when navigating any pathway to pull up the full flowchart diagram.

It also has a number of pop-up information boxes to help contextualise the pathway.

The free iPhone app is now available, with an Android version in development.